Sinful
by californiarolldreams
Summary: Jace and Clary live in two completely different Kingdoms, one crumbling and another in prosperity. Jace is in a gang of rebels and Clary lives in a palace. When Jace is asked to do something he'd never imagine, will both their worlds crumble down?  AU.
1. Prologue

Sinful

A/N

I take no credit in the creation of the Mortal Instruments and all its wonderful characters.

I hope you enjoy this story!

Review, please!

Thank yooou!

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Prologue

"We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing each other."

-Lucretius

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JACE

I stumbled through a crumbling alleyway, shadows flickering around me as I painfully limped my way through. Blood was seeping out of a wound in my upper arm, I had hastily tied a sash around it, but it was thoroughly soaked. I was panting from an extremely long chase from the police, limping from a twisted ankle. I was sent on a mission today, to steal several loaves of bread from the market and then sell it again in the underground black market, but the officials had raided the market of goods and taken it for their own benefit. Those policemen weren't even acting upon a code of honor; they were just a bunch of fools hired by our even more idiotic King.

Raids like this were common in the skid row city of Stygian that I call home. Ever since King Magnus Bane took the throne, all he did was only for himself. He never even blinked an eye when half of the city was on fire in the beginnings of the War, he didn't even try to repair the damages. The palace that he lives in is probably the only clean area of the entire damn city. It was always covered with a light layer of soot, but it seemed sparkling clean to the rest of us. There were guards posted at every possible place, he was taking no chances on his own security. Our security, however, was another matter.

It was a while back when the War first started. Our neighboring city, Elan, was in its peak time of prosperity due to the wise leadership of King Luke Garroway. Stygian, on the other hand, was at its worst time in history. The previous King was a desperate and foolish man and decided to attack and plunder Elan.

That did not go so well. Our troops were annihilated and our city was thrown into chaos. Eventually, a rebel got into the palace and stabbed the King, but that didn't stop the war. The War still continues today, although no one is still sure why. Our forces are almost completely obliterated, and the sad thing is, we knew this was going to happen, even from the beginning. It is due to our past leaders than we are in such a state now.

I leaned on the brick wall for support as my vision began to blur. I could smell the metallic scent of blood trickling from my arm as I sat down wearily, my stomach growling from yet another forgotten meal. My stele, an enchanted knife, clattered from my pocket and onto the cobblestone floor. I sighed and raked my hands through my dirty blond hair, making it spike up because of the sweat.

Forcing myself to stand up, I continued weaving my way through the alleys of Stygian when I finally reached my destination, delirious from sleep deprivation and hunger. A metal door stood in front of me with three letters crudely scratched onto it, L M S.

I knocked wearily and a voice emanated from inside.

"Password?"

"In heaven, an angel is no one in particular," I answered.

The door swung open.


	2. CH 1: Through each other's eyes

Sinful

A/N

I'm glad that I got a couple of favorites/story alerts! Thank you so much.

But seriously, review!

All beginnings are always rocky, but please stay with me.

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Chapter One

"The only angel who sees us now watches through each other's eyes."

-Rickie Lee Jones

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CLARY

I woke up to a soft chirping outside my older sister and mine's bedroom window, sunlight gently streaming through the glass panes. Blinking tiredly, I rolled over onto my back and pushed the blanket off me. It was tangled around my body and was quite heavy so my efforts brought a halt to my older sister's slumber.

"Clary," she grumbled, "It better not be as early as it feels. Stupid birds."

I grinned and glanced at the clock.

"Isabelle, It's noon."

She shot up off her pillow, her hair wild and her clothes rumpled.

"What? Seriously? Come on, Clary, we overslept!" she yelled, leaping gracefully off the bed and already dashing toward the bathroom.

"Calm down, Isabelle, what's the rush?" I muttered scornfully, too drowsy to do anything yet.

She turned off the water running from the sink faucet and gave me a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

"Clary, I can't believe you forgot what day today is."

"I won't _know _unless you _tell_ me, Isabelle!" I said irritably.

"Today's the day we, meaning you, me, Father, and Simon, visit the King of Stygian!"

A flash of recognition passed through me as I remembered Father, King Luke Garroway of Elan, reminding me that today was the day where we took a "friendly" visit to our neighboring city (and rival) Stygian. No one was looking forward to it except Isabelle. For some reason, she found the shambles of a city and the carnage of the war interesting. However, she is completely against the War, and she then tries to convince Father to end it.

He always responded with a tired smile and a "Soon, Izzy, soon." Eventually, soon wasn't enough for Isabelle and now her and Father never see eye-to-eye, providing awkward silences in meals and never ending grudges. It was, honestly, very tiring.

A loud knock echoed through our room.

"You girls are so slow!" Simon's voice came through the door, "I can't believe you two are my sisters."

"Shut up, Simon!" we yelled back simultaneously, grinning at each other.

Simon made a noise of impatience as he walked down the hall, away from our room. His footsteps clacked on the marble floor, quieted, and only when they disappeared did I push myself off my bed.

Once we both freshened up and put on some suitable riding clothes, we walked into the hall to find Jocelyn, our somewhat maternal maid, waiting for us.

"Ladies! You are quite late, Prince Simon is getting fidgety and your Father impatient…" she wrung her hands nervously at the thought.

Isabelle flapped a hand as I rolled my eyes.

"Jocelyn, don't worry about such things. We're _never_ late," she announced with an arrogant tilt of her chin.

It was Jocelyn's turn to sigh. "Just come along."

We followed her hurried footsteps down the hall and through the courtyard. By the time we reached the front entrance of the palace, we were both breathing quite heavily from the early exercise.

Father and Simon were there with their horses all saddled up, and they were kind enough to bring ours too.

"Thanks, Simon," I told him as I took my reins from him, "I owe you one."

"No, you owe me a lot more than that," he replied, brushing his chestnut hair away from his forehead.

I smacked him playfully as we began to ride away, a cool breeze tickling my shoulders.

"Here, you three, A quick breakfast," Father said as he passed us a piece of grilled toast with a fried egg on top. "It's not much, but you take what you can get."

We said our thanks and tried our best to eat while our horses jostled on the bumpy road.

The silence seemed to stretch on as our path continued, when one of our guards, Garrett, stuck out his hand to indicate for our party to stop. We tugged our reins as his eyes raked the clearing.

"I heard something. I know it," he muttered, a hand on his sword.

Father was reaching for his sword as well when a rustle was heard from our left.

My head swiveled toward the noise as a ragged figure jumped out of the bushes, a loaded crossbow in hand.

"At arms!" Garrett yelled, and our guards unsheathed their swords and shields. "You will not come any closer to this riding party!"

"What makes you think that I'll listen to what you have to say, Elan dog?" the man growled, and he fired the bow.


	3. CH 2: Philosophy

Sinful

A/N

Looking at story traffic, I got a lot of views

O_O Wow. Hrm. Did not expect that.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH.

Oh, for future reference, Jace is 17, Clary the same age, Isabelle is 18, Simon 19.

Alec is presumably 18.

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Chapter Two

"Angels have no philosophy but love."

-Terri Guillemets

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JACE

I nodded to the gatekeeper and made my way through the hall, devoid of any lights except the occasional holes in the ceiling, punctured from somewhat more violent raids. I ran my hand against the left wall and stopped only when I felt a slight dip, indicating a door. Twisting the doorknob that I found a couple feet down, I entered a room with dozens of people inside of it. Only silence greeted me. Men around my age were crowded around a crackling fire and pairs of eyes raked over my empty hands as one boy stood up and calmly walked over to my standing figure.

"You got nothing, Jace?" Alec, our boss, asked, almost aloof as his dark eyes drilled into my brain, searching for lies.

"Yeah. The guards raided the b-market earlier. Took everything," I answered, shrugging in apology.

A chorus of groans erupted across the room and someone threw an object at me. I ducked as it hit the wall with a smack. Alec raised his hand, and the noises of dissatisfaction quieted down.

"Didn't expect this would happen," he sighed, scratching his hair, "I guess we're going to have to go to the woods and kill something."

Several boys stood up to volunteer, one of them being Darius. Even though he was 16, he's got some nasty brawling skills and an unquenchable temper against anything Royal. Not to mention that he was our fight captain.

"Nothin' better than _earning_ our food, eh, boys?" he cackled as he slung a pistol over his shoulder. Chuckles were heard as Darius called up a few more to join him.

"Grant, Nico, Dallin, you boys ah' comin' with me," he ordered with a jerk of his head. His thick accent from who-knows-where mangled his words when he was shouting orders, but was perfectly understandable on normal terms. They stood up hastily and grabbed their weapons as they followed Darius into the night.

"Well, we got that problem covered," Alec said, "But Jace, my man, I've got to talk to you. A situation's coming."

He beckoned me outside into the hall and we walked in silence past the sleeping quarters and past his office. He opened a back door with a sharp twist of his wrist and kicked the rusty thing open.

He leaned against the doorframe and I watched him as his dark hair covered his closed eyes as he thought of what he was going to say. It was an odd habit of Alec, to shut his eyes and cross his arms as he thought through the gang's actions. Odd, but very dependable and wise, his actions were.

"Look, Jace, I'm not going to beat them bushes here."

I nodded, not wanting to correct his messed up idiom.

"But it's the first Sunday of the next month tomorrow. You know what that means?"

"No, and you're beating them bushes," I added snarkily.

He shot me a surly glance as he continued, "Whatever, man. What I'm saying is, we Last Men Standing gotta start making our moves, y'know? We're so close to overthrowing this crap King and putting our men in the power seat."

"Get to the point."

"The Elan Royals are riding over to our city this very moment. To "check up on us" or whatever. And our spies in other gangs have been telling me things-"

"You put _our guys_ in other gangs?" I whispered hotly.

"Yeah, so what? We needed info. Anyway, the gang down on Avis Road, the Exoduses or whatever, heard about the Elans coming over too. Turns out that they got more serious revenge problems than us and sent a shooter down to take the Elan party down."

My eyes widened as he finished. "You serious?"

"A hundred percent."

"Those Exoduses must be off their rocker."

"No kidding."

"But you know what this means, Jace?" Alec asked, a glint in his eye.

"No."

"It means complications for King. And the more, the better. So, why don't we help them Exoduses out, hm?"


	4. CH 3: Only one path

Sinful

A/N

Weee third chapter! *confetti*

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Chapter Three

"There is only one path to Heaven. On Earth, we call it Love."

-Anonymous

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JACE

After saying a quick and hasty goodbye to the boys, Alec and I saddled our horses in the quiet evening, the sun slowly disappearing over the horizon. Shadows dipped around us as we led our horses out into the street, their hooves clopping against the cobblestones, a painfully loud disruption of the silence that was always present in this part of town.

Alec's horse, Cross, a dark brown horse who had eyes almost as wild as Alec's, let out an impatient huff of air as Alec launched himself over the horse's back, aggressively landing on his saddle.

"Sorry," he muttered with a grin, stroking the horse's black mane as I saddled my own horse, Chance, a young, reliable mare who could ride like no tomorrow. Dallin, one of our soldiers, won him in a gamble- hence his name.

We set off at a quick pace, the wind rushing against us, making my eyes tear up.

"Jace, I am never going to let you live this down, son!" Alec yelled at me, laughing loudly, as he gestured at my streaming eyes, his eyes perfectly dry.

"Shut up!" I replied, laughing too.

We reached the outer parts of the city, the road slowly turning into grassy patches of land. The horses were panting lightly and we continued to push them harder. They were used to much harder runs than this. We took a turn and entered a dense forest with a slightly beaten path that we followed. Ducking from branches and the occasional prickly leaf, we eventually reached near the other side of the forest.

Alec, who was slightly ahead of me, shot out his hand and wrenched back the reins on Cross and he responded with a bitter cry.

I gave him a condescending look as I slowed down next to him and he ignored it, lightly placing his hand on my shoulder.

I followed his gaze to a group of people on horses through the dark pine trees that covered us from view. We nodded, knowing that that was the Elan royalty due to the mass of guards surrounding them. We tied our horses to a scrawny tree nearby and gave them water and an apple.

Alec slowly inched around the bushes and I took the rear when I noticed another figure crouched behind the shrubbery nearby. I elbowed Alec in the ear and he whipped around, glaring, until I pointed at the person.

I squinted at the mysterious figure, who, on closer inspection, had long, black hair covering half of his face and was spiked up in the back. I took notice of the loaded crossbow in his hand. Alec nodded at me and beckoned for me to lean in.

"I thought there would be some sort of mob attack where the soldiers could easily take 'em out," he whispered in my ear, "But that boy over there, that's Shin. Shin's got mad firing skills, it's no joke. They don't need our help. Let's just enjoy the view, hm?"

"Sure," I replied, sitting down on the damp forest floor, a cool breeze ruffling the leaves, a soothing sound.

The Elan crowd came nearer, their lanterns swinging in the darkness, and several arguing voices reached my ears.

"For the last time, Isabelle, your horse is _not_ pregnant! It's just _tired_," a boy said dryly, obviously exasperated.

"Then why is its belly so huge?" an imperial voice retorted, "And quit rolling your eyes at me, Simon!"

"Izzy, Click's belly has always been that big. It's not our fault that you stuff your horse with crap every day," another girl said, her voice clear and patient.

I stifled a grin at her retort when Alec shoved me lightly, calling me to attention. We peeked over the bushes and finally caught a good glance at the party.

First into view was the King, Luke Garroway of Elan. His figure was slightly ahead of the three behind him and he was laughing, a deep boom echoing through the forest. I noticed that he kept a light hand on his sword that was strapped to his belt. He knew that there would be trouble.

The boy behind him, who I'm assuming was the eldest prince, Simon, was riding a white horse and was rubbing his eyes tiredly but was still smiling. He had messy brown hair almost coming down to his eyes and he brushed it away often. To his right was the next eldest daughter, Isabelle. She was shooting dagger glances at her siblings and was arguing and gesturing wildly, her long black hair swaying.

The youngest, whose name none of us knew, had red hair, almost like a beacon in the night. Her slightly curled hair was resting on her shoulders and her green eyes flashed as she laughed at Isabelle. When she smiled, I could feel my cheeks reddening. She gripped the reins lightly with long and nimble fingers as she got closer to our hiding spot.

"Watch Shin. He's getting ready," Alec murmured as he ducked back down.

A stab of adrenaline shot through me as I saw Shin lean on his knees and pick up his crossbow. When he did shoot the arrow, one of the royalty would die. And it might be the red head girl.

Shin loaded his bow with a feathered arrow and rested it on his thigh. "Clary, you're getting behind! Pick up the pace!" the King called over his shoulder.

"Clary," Alec whispered, "So _that's_ the princess's name."

_Clary_, I repeated. _Clary_. My eyes raked over her striking features, drinking in her face. Her long eyelashes were drooping from exhaustion as she lightly kicked her horse forward.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"Here he goes," Alec whispered excitedly, nudging me.

One of the guards threw out his hand and the party stopped abruptly.

King Luke was slowly pulling out his sword when Shin burst out of the bushes, crossbow aimed straight in the middle of the group.

"At arms!" The guard yelled, "You will not come any closer to this riding party!"

"What makes you think I'll listen to what you have to say, Elan dog?" Shin growled, and he fired.

To my horrified eyes and Alec's gleeful ones, the arrow flew in an impressive arc.

And missed.

Completely.

The arrow sailed over Clary's head and embedded in the soft dirt behind her. I found myself laughing with relief and Alec suddenly cursed, stood up, and sprinted toward our horse.

"Alec, what are you do-" I cut off as I saw what he took out from his horse's pack.

A crossbow.

"Alec! Are you kidding me?" I whispered angrily, gesturing at the guards who were wrestling down Shin.

"Come on, Jace, we're here for a reason! I can't believe Shin missed," he muttered as he loaded his bow, "And this is the perfect time."

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CLARY

My heart thudded horribly as I watched the guards wrestle the attacker down, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I took several deep breaths and glanced around at my family.

Isabelle was flapping a hand at her pale face and Simon's eyes were wide open with shock. My father clapped a hand on Simon's face and his gray gaze rested on me.

"Clary, are you okay?"

I nodded shakily. "Let's get out of here."

"Not until the shooter's incapacitated," he replied.

He glanced over at our guards who were dealing with many blows dealt by the perpetrator. His eyes were a dark brown, sharp and rebellious. He was greatly outnumbered but still held his own until Garrett managed to slam his fist into his temple. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell into the dirt.

"Finally," Isabelle huffed.

Suddenly, another person appeared in the forest, his face shadowed by the leaves. He held another crossbow.

"Help!" I screamed, and all heads swiveled to the man.

But it was too late. The guards were too far away to take down the attacker.

He raised the crossbow and another man stood up next to him, speaking angrily. The brown haired one shoved the blond away with an impatient hand and with an angry glance, shot the arrow.

I was frozen in shock as I heard the twang of the bow and the arrow whistling through the air. It flew straight and true, aimed directly at my heart. I screamed and impulsively put my hands in front of my face and waited for the impact.

"Clary!" I heard Simon and my father shout, and a sickening thump reached my ears.

But I felt no pain.

I cautiously looked up and saw Isabelle and my father staring at something directly in front of me.

It was Simon. There was an arrow in his shoulder, blood streaming down his shirt.

"Oh-oh my God! Simon!" I shrieked, hastily sliding off my horse and running over to where some of our guards helped Simon down and others chased down the second cursed shooter.

"Simon, can you hear me?" I heard Isabelle demand.

"Yeah, calm down, Izzy," he replied weakly with a small smile, "I'm fine. Except for the thing in my shoulder."

Tears trickled down my cheeks. "I-I'm so sorry, Simon. You shouldn't have gotten hit."

He lifted a weak arm and took my hand in his. "Shut up."

With a sigh, his eyes closed and his hand slipped out of mine.

"Simon? Simon!" My father said, "Get him on the horse! We have to get help, now!"

"Is he knocked out?" Kent, our healer, asked, "He is? Good. I'm getting the arrow out."

Efficiently and quickly, he pulled out the arrow in his flesh. The tip was covered in blood-blood that should have been mine- and Ken quickly set it aside. He bandaged his shoulder and nodded to the guards.

In my blurry vision, the guards hauled a limp Simon out of my frozen grasp and set him in his saddle.

"Where do we go? We're too far from Elan to get proper care!" Isabelle cried, sobbing.

"There's only one place to go," my father muttered grimly, "The Stygian palace."


	5. CH 4: Static

Sinful

A/N

It's been a while, eh?

Happy New Year.

Stygian is pronounced: STIH-JEE-IN

Say it fast. However, Stygian describes the people living there. The actual city name is Stygia. Sorry.

And please, PLEASE do not stab me with a spork. Those things are weird.

Update: Sorry about the weird Chinese characters. They just randomly put themselves there. Hopefully, I fixed it.

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Chapter Four

"If you can't hear the angels, try quieting the static of worry.

-Terri Guillemets

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JACE

"Damn!Alec cursed as he slung his crossbow over his shoulder, "Fine day for my shot to go off,he continued angrily as we tore through the bushes.

"Yeah,I agreed, shoving some branches away, but at least it hit somebody important."

The cold sweat that prickled my back when Alec shot that arrow still poured down my back, but relief soon quenched it as I saw the arrow miss its target. And in whatever way you look at it, we still succeeded.

Unless we got caught by those guards. They yelled some royal terms behind us and shot the occasional arrow, which of course, didn't hit us.

We found our horses in the place where we last left them and leaped on them. While Alec yelled a cocky farewell (see ya, boys!), and me still grinning like an idiot, we flew out of the forest, leaving the guards in our dust. We looked behind our shoulders after a few miles and found no one behind us.

Alec let out a loud shout of victory as we entered the town. "Jace, that was the finest assassination attempt this country will ever see!"

I grinned back as we clattered through the street, the darkness still shrouding our identities. "I'm sure it is."

After a couple of minutes riding in silence with Alec occasionally whooping in delight, we reached our base. I knocked on the door, said the password, and a stable boy came and took our horses for us. Alec thanked him with a couple coins.

We reached the door on the left side of the wall and opened it. The men, who were sleeping, blinked groggily as Alec yelled,

"Wake up, men, we've got a report!

They scrambled into sitting positions as they rubbed their eyes sleepily. Grant was the first to ask how the mission went. Alec, with a smirk, gestured at me to speak.

"Oh, yeah. Fine. It went really good, actually,I snorted "Shin missed on his first attempt, that idiot, so we had to finish the job for him."

Darius' booming voice quieted the hushed whispers around him. "Shin missed? You serious, Jace?"

I nodded. "So Alec pulled out his own bow and shot the prince himself."

Loud whoops chorused from the men as they stood up to clap Alec on the back. He was grinning and gestured for them to sit down.

"He was shot in the shoulder bleeding all over himself,I continued, smiling as they continued to chortle.

"What about the princess that black haired one?our weapons master, Nico, asked.

"You got an eye on her, Nico?" I taunted, and the men roared in laughter, jeering at Nico's slowly reddening face.

I shook my head, "She's fine. So's the red-head," I added.

"They're just girls,Darius added, his voice encouraging, "Not a thing to worry 'bout."

Nodding, Alec began to speak. "Today is only the beginning, guys. I've been thinking, we need something crazy, something absolutely _insane_ that no one, not even those Exoduses, can attempt."

I turned at him with surprise. He didn't mention any of this to me.

"That arrow is the start of this plan. They, none of them, know our identities as the archers who did the deed. So, we're gonna take this a step farther. We're gonna infiltrate the palace soon, kill King Bane, and everyone royal in it. Then the city will be in our hands."

A shocked silence met his words when Nico spoke. "You're right. This is mad."

"Mad, yes. Insane, too. But simple enough for us to handle."

"Who's going?" I asked, praying that it wasn't going to be me.

"You and me, man. The rest of you are gonna be called in once we got the assassination plans set in stone."

His confidence was contagious, apparently. The boys began to nod.

"Meeting over. Get a good night's sleep, boys,Alec said, then waved as he left the room, with me staring at him like he was truly insane (which he was).

As I lay down on my cot, a single thought settled down in my brain.

_She's a princess. A stupid Elan princess. _

And soon enough, I believed it.

CLARY

We rode hard and fast, not speaking any words. We couldn't risk getting hurt again, especially with three fourths of our guard gone to chase down the archers.

I glanced at Simon, who sat in front of me in our saddle, my hands gripped around his waist and my reins so he wouldn't fall. He was still unconscious.

The sun was almost completely gone and I began to see my breath in the air.

"We're almost there!" my father shouted, his voice raspy from panic.

Isabelle was done sobbing and was replaced with a fierce determination to get Simon safe.

Soon enough, we reached the tell-tale cobblestone streets of the city of Stygia. Our horses were kicking up dust on the streets and sent people diving to either side to get themselves to safety.

Over the small houses that lined the street, a huge tower peeked over the roofs like the sun rising on the horizon.

"There it is!"Garrett yelled.

When we reached the front garden, we slowed to a hasty stop while my father came up to the door and pounded furiously. There was no welcoming party for us because we promised to be there the next morning.

A maid, whose dark hair was untidy from sleep, answered rudely. "Who is it at this ungodly hour...oh! By the Angel...oh my. King Garroway, I'm terrible sorry-"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry as well to disturb you. But we seek immediate medical aid, my son, Simon, he's gravely hurt."

"Of course,she answered, still rubbing her pale face. She turned her back on my father and bellowed quite impressively for her size down the hall.

"_Medics! And Yura, wake the King! It's urgent!_

Her expression unchanged, she turned back to us. "Please, come inside.

When we entered the foyer, Isabelle and Garrett carrying Simon on a makeshift stretcher, the high ceiling was illuminated by the moon. Windows were lining the ceiling that let little light in. The hall itself was bustling with activity. Wooden doors opened and shut as people rushed around, carrying bandages and food. The maid, whose name was Rita, led us to a sitting room. The medics had taken Simon with great urgency to the clinic, and Isabelle had tagged along to make sure everything happened to her satisfaction.

Father took a seat on a plush chair gratefully and began sipping his steaming tea. I followed his example.

"Thank the Angel we got here on time,"he mused, his eyes gazing on the mounds of books lining the walls of this room. Candles burned brightly and illuminated most of the room.

I was about to agree with him when the door opened to show King Bane. He was wearing bright blue flannel pants and a matching button-up shirt, which wasn't buttoned. His arrogant eyes caught mine as he closed the door behind him. As my father bowed and I curtsied, he, oblivious to our shocked eyes at his casual dress, joined himself at our table and helped himself to a sugar cube. Leaning back in his plush chair, he began to speak.

"My, what a surprise, my King,he said lazily, running a hand through his long black hair, "To see you here at this time of night."

"I apologize for not coming at the time we planned. There was an emergency," my father replied.

"Yes, yes, I've heard,he said with a hint of an impatient air, "but send your girl to bed. Her room his ready, and this talk is not of princesses like her."

Father's eyes flashed with anger, but it was quickly dispelled as he sighed. "All right. Clary, go to your room, I'm sure a maid will help you find your way."

I was slightly offended by the Stygian King's order, but I curtsied and exited the room. Sure enough, Jodi was there to guide me. We took several turns and walked down many halls before I reached my chambers. When I thanked her and opened the door, Isabelle was already inside.

"Simon's going to be fine," she said before I could ask.

"Good," I muttered as I toppled over into my bed, exhausted with the day's events.

"Aren't you going to change?" she asked me, scoffing.

"No."

And before my worries could get the best of me, I fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
